Conservatives Defeat the Middle Class with Smoke and Mirrors

Did you ever wonder why Wall Street bankers think they are worth $100 million bonuses? They think they are worth it because they have skewed the concentration of wealth in the United States. They are getting away with ripping off the Middle Class, and few of them have gone to prison for their behavior. Every so often, though, they overstep, and then we all get to see and feel the consequences directly.

September 15, 2008 was a day that will live in infamy, because it was the day that the global financial system finally began to collapse. After thirty years of Conservatives dividing and conquering the Middle Class resulted in huge excess, the system could no longer support the greed, and many Americans had their retirement plans crushed. As usual, the rich got richer and the rest were left to our own devises of surviving financial crisis.

Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin has provided us with another case in point. Instead of simply taking on his state budget crisis honorably, he decided that he would attack a century of Americans joining the Middle Class through collective bargaining rights by attacking those rights. If he is allowed to succeed, he will be a hero of Wall Street gluttons, who don't think they should share with those of us who do the work.

Taking away collective bargaining in Wisconsin will have no immediate effect on Wisconsin's budget, but as public servants are weaker in bargaining over the long term, the rich will get richer in Wisconsin. If Governor Walker succeeds, he's a likely Republican presidential candidate in the near future.

They've have had a thirty-year run of dividing and conquering the Middle Class. The result has been a concentration of wealth in America that rivals the days of Teapot Dome and the steel and railroad Robber Barons on the late 19th Century.

How do they do it? It's very simple. They want average citizens to debate one another over matters that don't concern the wealthy, diverting attention from their real agenda and defeating their opposition.

Their favorite tactic is to divide and conquer over social issues like gay rights and abortion. All you have to do is watch or listen to the major Conservative media outlets to know that a huge proportion of their time is spent on abortion and gay rights. What the heck do they think they're selling?

All you have to do is watch iconic movies like "In the Heat of the Night" or "Dirty Dancing" to understand the consequences of making abortion illegal. Before Roe v. Wade we had lots of abortions in the United States. We caused major portions of our healthcare community to be felons, and traumatized coat hanger wielding sorority sisters for life because of the consequences of trying to help girls in trouble.

We should more reasonably fight the scourges of sex trafficking and abuse of women, but instead the Conservatives have too many of us believing that we will stop abortion by making it illegal. That doesn't work, but fighting over it keeps us from paying attention to how they're ripping us off.

Then there's the favorite issue of Gay Rights. Is it any of our business what people do in the privacy of their bedroom? Is there any one reading this who isn't ashamed of something they have done sexually? Why should any of us be ashamed of our own sexuality?

A recent study revealed that 40% of Americans have experienced that women's jackets kind of sex, and yet God has not destroyed the United States of America. What is happening? The Conservatives are making us think about something that doesn't matter so that their smoke and mirrors media machine will keep our attention away from what matters to them--the ability to rip us off without interruption.

The truth is that Conservatives don't care about lower taxes for most of us. They just don't want to pay their fair share. We could solve the Social Security solvency "crisis" in a New York minute if we simply taxed everyone on an equal percentage of our income. If you earn over $106,800, you don't pay any Social Security Tax on the overage. Wall Street investment bankers with $100 million bonuses pay practically none of their income for Social Security, though they've reaped the biggest benefit from our system of wealth distribution in the United States. How is that fair?

The next time you hear Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, or Glenn Beck shouting about Abortion, Gay Rights, or Social Security solvency, think about how many cigars and yachts you've bought for the fat cats! They want you to think those are the real issues, and they are paid handsomely to keep you stirred up and looking the other way!